Fast Food

One of my favorite sights in my travels in Asia is the street food vendor. I have concluded that in most cases the simple street foods are superior in taste to the Asian restaurants that offer a wider variety and more expensive food faire. So I like to buy whatever looks appealing (even at the risk of it being not as sanitary), and as of yet have never gotten as much as a tummy ache from eating it. Maybe it's because the food seems exotic to me or just because it is different from the standard (and very good) food I have in New Orleans. I have often read that New Orleans has food on an equal to most places in the world, and the size of my tummy is a confirmation of that. But we have no street food. There are no vendors pushing carts of oily goodies cooked to perfection from daily practice and time honored techniques. There are no street stalls or street food markets here either. It is a pity that our street food isn't really that at all. It's "fast food" (or more grammatically stated - food that is served and prepared quickly, given that the food itself isn't running or even "fast").
This American fast food is bland and homogenized, which is why I partake in it only selectively. Even the restaurants are bland looking, all the same in appearance as to the street vendors own personal wagons and decor. Give me a run-down street cart with fragrant smells and greasy treats any day. You can have the Golden Arches or whatever fast food emblem sits atop the Americans fast food chains. I think our restaurant food is very good, in my view more often better than what I have eaten abroad. But those Asian street vendors are the best for their version of fast food. I'll walk a kilometer for crispy and greasy fried chicken tinted with a slight pepper edge. And a satay is to die for when eaten with that sticky and sweet rice those vendors sell.
I have too many street favorites to list them, and will slight one or two I probably can't recall at the moment, so here are just a few.
- In Beijing, at a night street market that was a Chinese ethnic lesson in regional Chinese foods,. I had lamb from a Mongolian region that attacked me from the grill as the aroma of it hypnotized me both as I bought and consumed that spicy, juice char of meat and long sense in my memory of just how good it tasted. The restaurant food in China was disappointing, but forget the Great Wall! That was the Great Lamb.
- I remember in Jakarta a friend from there advised me that eating at a particular food market was a risk. I quickly announced I would die for good food and we had a bowl of stew that was perfect. As I remember the cost of the stew was less than a dollar. But the same meal would cost 20 times in any Jakarta restaurant and probably have half the taste of that one.
- In Bangkok there is street food everywhere, and what I liked was a stall that sold noodles. I am not sure what those noodles were, but the were the best I ever ate, and I am not a fan of noodles very often. I chose that vendor because I noticed the hundreds of well dressed men and women who ate there at lunch time, a testimony that the locals who could afford a fancier place eschewed those for the superior taste of the Asian food stall.
- In my much hated Singapore I did have one good experience. It was my first and best tasting mango shakes from a Singapore food market there. Creamy and deep in mango taste, I think that shake may give me hope that Singapore may one day be worthy of another visit...well....on second thought...
Anyway, what are some of your favorite street foods or street food experiences? Do you prefer street food to restaurant foods? In Corpus Christi, Texas the other day a woman received a special postal gift form a long lost love- his severed human finger along with a threatening letter from him that said, "This is my last chance to touch you," Corpus Christi Police reported. Police weren't sure which finger was removed or how, but that it appeared to have been washed before it was mailed Friday. "It was a clean cut, and it wasn't mangled." How considerate of him.
The 32- year-old lucky recipient woman filed for an emergency protective order from her boyfriend last week. Police didn't release the name of the 34-year-old ex-boyfriend, who has not been located. He has moved to nearby Spring, Texas, but police there could not confirm the status of the search for him.
Corpus Christi police said a previous incident of family violence was reported between the couple this month. The man faces misdemeanor charges for literally "giving her the finger" and additional charges because of the threatening nature of the letter. The woman reportedly has vowed to never again eat "finger food' of any type.